Wipro acquires Unza for $246-m

BANGALORE, INDIA: Wipro Limited today announced to acquire 100 per cent shareholding in Unza Holdings Limited, a Singapore-based FMCG company for an all cash transaction of Rs 10102 million ($246 million).

The transaction is expected to close by end of July '07.

Briefing the media about the acquisition, Vineet Agrawal, president, Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting , said that this acquisition is a significant one as it gives us large presence in South East Asia. "This would double our addressable market size in terms of GDP."

Gavin D Welman, managing director of Unza, said, "We found Wipro to be a comfortable partner. This partnership would give us access to resources required to fuel our ambition for further growth."

"After acquisition the Unza management would remain as it is. The combined entities would leverage regional best practices for driving growth and provide opportunities for better sourcing," said Nagendra Arya, general manager, new business development, Wipro.

The overall impact of this acquisition on Wipro Limited is low as the bulk of the revenue is generated from IT solutions and services and consumer care business contributes four to five per cent to the overall turn over of the company, Agarwal informed.

Unza is a personal care manufacturing company focused on Asian consumers. It has operations in 40 countries. It has five manufacturing plants in Malaysia, Vietnamn, China and Indonesia.